Legal proceedings of a courtroom or tribunal frequently refer to evidentiary information that the Judge, witness, the legal representatives of the plaintiff and the defendant wish to consider simultaneously.
Usually every person has a paper copy of each of the documents that may be referenced in the proceedings. For example, when counsel refers to a specific statutory declaration counsel must wait to ensure that everyone else in the proceedings has located their copy of the declaration before they can continue. This introduces significant time delays into the proceedings which in turn significantly impacts on the length of these proceedings.
Private documents also are referenced in these proceedings such as pre-hearing analysis of evidence, annotated versions of previously reviewed evidence and plans for conduct of the case. For example, the legal representative team of the plaintiff may include counsel and multiple solicitors that all wish to refer to one of these private documents during the proceedings.